Concorde 'ready to board'

BRITISH Airways and Air France are likely to get the go-ahead next week to resume Concorde passenger services.

The permission-to-fly certificate for the supersonic aircraft was withdrawn last summer following the Air France Concorde crash in July 2000 which claimed 113 lives.

Today, an Anglo-French Concorde working group said that it was likely that the certificate would be restored for both airlines' Concordes by the end of August.

It is believed that a decision on the certificate - which each of BA's seven Concordes and Air France's remaining five must have - will be made on August 28.

Both airlines have made extensive modifications to their supersonic fleet to avoid any possibility of a repeat of last year's catastrophe in which all 109 passengers and crew were killed, as well as four people on the ground, following the crash just outside Paris.